Nowadays, smartphones with touch-screen interface have become the most popular personal mobile apparatuses. In a smartphone, a mobile operating system is used, and functions of the smartphone can be extended through installing various application programs. Furthermore, the essential functions of the smartphone such as network connection, identity authentication, multimedia presentation, digital camera and navigation make the smartphone to serve as a communication device based on a mobile node.
Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a schematic diagram illustrating a conventional smartphone. The main body 10 of the smartphone is held in one hand at its usual state as shown in FIG. 1. The display module 14 occupies the largest area of the main body 10. In addition to display function, touch input function is usually integrated to the display module 14 to provide a user interface of the smartphone.
Please refer to FIG. 2, which is a schematic diagram illustrating the interior of the conventional smartphone. The touch input function is provided by a touch-sensitive module 22 attached to a lower surface of the transparent cover 21. The touch-sensitive module 22 senses touch operations of finger(s) on an upper surface of the transparent cover 21. The touch-sensitive module 22 is bonded to the transparent cover 21 and the display module 23 by an optically clear adhesive (OCA) 24. The display module 23 may be a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display or other flat-panel display. Other circuit components 25 are disposed on a circuit board 26 located under the display module 23. The circuit board 26 is electrically connected to the display module 23 and the touch-sensitive module 22 through flexible printed circuit (FPC) boards 27.
The above-mentioned parts are disposed in a space defined by a lower casing 12 and the upper transparent cover 21. Related components and wires are disposed in the clearance between both sides 12S of the casing 12 and the display module 23. Therefore, light-shielding material is usually coated to hide the clearance. Further, proximity sensors 70 are disposed near both sides 12S of the casing 12 for specific sensing to enhance the user interface. However, the proximity sensors 70 additionally introduced near both sides 12S of the casing 12 need additional driver circuits, and increase complexity of the entire structure of the smartphone and production difficulty.